Cory Aquino and the triumph of ‘People’s Power’

The Philippines during the "People Power" revolution

Friday, August 07, 2009
By Lynn Ockersz
The Island (Sri Lanka)

Late Philippine President Cory Aquino would be best remembered for being swept to power in a completely bloodless popular revolt against one of the most repressive of dictatorships in Asia. It was indeed a momentous moment in Third World political history in that the people had their say in the most decisive fashion with not ‘a shot being fired’.

It was Chinese communist icon Mao Tse Dong who famously stated that ’power comes from the barrel of a gun’ and this saying by the Chinese revolutionary had taken its place in the political ‘wisdom of the ages’, when the 1986 ‘People’s Power’ revolt in the Philippines stood the magisterial pronouncement on its head. The seemingly soundly entrenched Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship was eased out of office by the ordinary people of the Philippines who brought life to a halt for days on end in the archipelago by massing on the country’s highways in a show of phenomenal peaceful protest against their rulers, but power changed hands without a drop of blood being shed. The people wielded no violence to achieve their ends and the law enforcers largely refrained from coming down hard on the protesting public with a mailed fist. However, governance was not possible in a country which had ground to a halt and the people eventually had their say.

The ‘People’s Power’ revolt that brought Cory Aquino to the presidency was decisive proof that not all popular political revolts should be bloody in nature. Here was conclusive evidence that ‘right is might’. Until then, Asian political history, in particular, seemed to be proving just the opposite. Most states in the South-East and South Asian regions in the decade of the eighties, were home to repressive, undemocratic regimes with perhaps only India surviving as an exemplar of accountable, democratic governance.

Cambodia, for instance, at the time, was continuing to strive for political normalization following the ‘Reign of Terror’ unleashed by the despotic Pol Pot regime. ‘The Killing Fields’ of Cambodia were unsettlingly illustrative of the bloody extremes uncurbed dictatorial power could degenerate into. Hopes of positive change in Myanmar were to be soon undermined by a show of repressive force by the country’s military junta. Things came to a head in 1989, when the junta crushingly put an end to the democratic process and made Aung San Suu Kyi a veritable political prisoner.

Closer to home, Pakistan was writhing in the grip of the Zia ul-Haq military dictatorship following the ‘political assassination’ of former Premier Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. In Bangladesh too, except for some short spells of civilian rule, undemocratic administrations were the order of the day. In most of these states, ethno- populism was combining with religious chauvinism to stall democratic development.

It is against this bleak political backdrop that the epochal ‘People’s Power’ revolution bloomed rapturously in the Philippines. Here was proof that popularly-backed, value-based politics, which are peaceful in intent, could change the face of a country’s governance in the direction of democracy.

It is to the Marcos dictatorship that political analysts are indebted for phrases, such as, ‘façade democracy’ and ‘crony capitalism’. The former phrase refers to the process of ‘doctoring’ or tampering with constitutional provisions, many repressive regimes in the Third World have recourse to, for staying in power, sometimes indefinitely. Coupled with this process is the misuse or manipulation of steamroller parliamentary majorities by political executives to pass batteries of repressive laws, which are undemocratic in spirit, but have an air of legality because they bear the stamp of parliamentary approval. All this and more is done to ensure longevity of political tenures and for the exercise of undemocratic control over publics and most such bizarre distortions in governance are traceable to a degree to the Marcos regime. It is only fair that it is mentioned here, that some Sri Lankan political heavyweights have been very assiduous pupils of Marcos. In fact Sri Lanka was also referred to as a ‘façade democracy’.

The dismantling and erosion of democracy through the adoption of these political sleights of hand by ruling political elites, were geared to facilitating the increasing integration of the Philippines with the global economy. For instance, throwing the economy open to MNCs was high on Marcos’ priority list and it was with the same end in view that Sri Lanka at that time sought to replicate within its shores a free market, Singapore-style political-economy. However, it was mainly the ruling class in the Philippines and its ‘cronies’ that gained mainly from this process of economic liberalization and it is on this basis that the phrase ‘crony capitalism’ gained currency. Needless to say, ‘crony capitalism’ is not an unfamiliar phenomenon even in Sri Lanka.

However, in the Philippines the yoke of dictatorship was thrown off with the gaining of a measure of political maturity by the public. The people’s disenchantment with the Marcos regime had grown to such a degree that they were prepared to take their sense of dissatisfaction into the streets, although in a peaceful manner, when the regime disputed the result of the presidential election of 1986, which pitted Marcos against Cory Aquino.

It is the degenerate nature of the Marcos regime that helped turn public opinion decisively against Marcos and filled in the people the yearning for exemplary governance. Cory was seen as fulfilling this need and it is for this reason that she was endowed with substantial moral authority.

The Catholic Church of the Philippines, in this crisis, proved a veritable conscience of the country and was very forthright in taking the Marcos regime to task for its numerous failures. The Church, in fact, proved a catalyst in galvanizing public opinion against the regime. Thus, the Church was ‘involved’ in politics but in a very positive and constructive fashion, which is how it should be. It chose not to take the line of least resistance by saying ‘yes’ to the ‘evils’ of the day. The Church was even perhaps instrumental in nurturing non-violent, popular resistance to Marcos.

The ‘People’s Power’ Revolution of 1986, therefore, helps the South Asian political commentator to place politico-economic developments in his region in the correct perspective. Political repression, we find, could only increase with the so-called opening –up of economies. However, courageous, peaceful, popular opposition to political repression could be an agent of positive change and should be tried out and backed by all progressive sections.